What a fantastic buddy novel featuring two strong females!! Such an excellent, realistic portrayal of a relationship between friends. Zentner has a gift for showing us teen relationships without over the top drama. His characters could be your neighbor, your kid, your student, your cousin.

It should come as no surprise to my followers that I love Jeff Zentner's two previous novels. So I was so excited to read his 2019 release. Josie and Delia aka Rayne and Delilah had such a great bond. I loved their friendship and humor so much. Their relationship reminded me a lot of me and my best friend so I felt really connected to both of them. I love that they are doing something so unique together with the horror hosting. I was so heartbroken for Delia and the situation with her dad. Nobody deserves their parent to abandon them like that. One thing I really love about Jeff Zenter's books are that, unlike most YA books, the parents of the main characters are involved in the story and not just vague background characters. Delia's mom was such a unique character and a great mom in her own way. I also fell in love with Arliss and his grumpy nature. I laughed (a lot) and I cried. So many times while I was reading I was either laughing out loud (or trying not to when I was on my lunch break at work), or I was trying not to cry. Jeff Zenter's books are the best at making me feel all of the emotions. I HIGHLY recommend this book. So good.

Best friends Josie and Delia transform into Rayne and Delilah every weekend on their horror/comedy, public access show Midnite Matinee. They goof around, do skits, and show a terrible horror movie. The show is what made them friends, but now they find themselves on the verge of graduation and possibly going in different directions.

Delia feels like she is constantly being left behind. Her dad left her and her mom years before and that one terrible event has hung like a dark cloud over every aspect of her life. Delia is not ambitious, except for when it comes to their show. But Josie has dreamed of being on TV since she was a kid. Midnite Matinee is just the beginning for her and her parents have set up an internship for her in Knoxville, which is 5 hours away.

Delia is trying to keep Josie from leaving her behind and Josie is trying to do everything she can for her best friend. When they hear a well known figure in the horror hosting community is going to be at a convention, the two decide to try to meet up with him, hoping he can take their show and make it bigger. Everything is riding on this one meeting -- but things don't go as planned.

Zentner writes teen girl friendships very well. Josie and Delia are realistic and full-fledged characters. They have their inside jokes and specific way of talking with each other, which felt very real. They have fights, but they aren't screaming matches. They say what they both are feeling and at times that causes tension between them, but they always make up. This really stood out to me. Normally when two girl friends fight it involves name calling, yelling, and hysterical behavior. Josie and Delia aren't like that and I really enjoyed seeing a relationship that reminded me of myself and my best friend.

While there is a very sweet romantic subplot, the main story here is Josie and Delia. Their friendship is the main plot, but Zentner also explores what two very different teen girls are thinking and feeling during that time when you've graduated high school and have to make a decision about your future.

**I received an eARC from Netgalley**

I don't want to give too much away about Jeff Zentner's newest book. I will say the following however: Rayne & Delilah's Midnight Matinee checked off a lot of boxes for me. First and foremost, I found these characters to be legitimately funny and more importantly really good friends to one another. It's also about creative endeavors and the hopes and dreams that goes into those efforts! The story also features a basset hound and an MMA fighter. Zentner brings to this story a different feel from his last two novels, but it's as distinguished as anything else he's created in my book.

Friendships change. They grow and evolve and sometimes they become something wholly different from what they were when they began. I really enjoyed this book and it's look at how the choices you make affect the people around you and vice versa. I'm looking forward to reading more by Zentner in the future.

This was a book of world building for some, and it took a while to get started.
Once established, the milieu was fun and engaging, with angst built in amongst the zaniness.
A fun read with a heart tugging ending.

“We may not have forever together, but we have right now.”

** Trigger warning for mental health issues. **

“I don’t know who watches Midnite Matinee or why. I mean, I have some idea from letters we get. Here’s my guess: it’s lonely people. People who don’t have a lot going on in their lives, because they have time to sit at home on a Saturday night (that’s when we air in most markets, including our home market) and flip through channels. People who aren’t rich, because if they were, they’d have more entertainment options. People who aren’t hip, because if they were, they’d seek out higher quality entertainment options. People who don’t truly love to be frightened, because if they did, they’d find actual scary movies. People who prefer their awful movies straight, with no commentary, because otherwise they’d watch old episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. People who still write letters. It’s a very niche crowd. Most of all, I think it’s people who love to be reminded that sometimes you do your best and you come up short, but there’s still a place in the world for people like that. People like them.” – Delia

“You don’t always know at the time when you’re experiencing one of those random memories you’ll carry all your life. When nothing momentous happened other than driving a little too fast in the direction of Florida, at dusk, with your best friend by your side and, at your back, a guy who’s really good at kissing you. Still, you remember it until the day you die. But this time I know.” – Josie

Delia Wilkes and Josie Howard are best friends, soon-to-be-graduates, and local Jackson, Tennessee celebrities (okay, so I use that term loosely). Delilah Darkwood and Rayne Ravenscroft – as they are otherwise known – host Midnite Matinee, a campy public access show that screens terrible B-rated horror films culled from the depths of obscurity (and the ’80s, or so one would assume), performing cheesy skits before, after, and during. Though it’s what brought them together, the show means very different things to each young woman: for Josie, it’s a doorway into a career in tv; for Delia, it’s a way of reaching out to her absentee father, who abandoned Delia more than a decade before, leaving her family in ruin. The tapes she diligently combs through every week? Belonged to her dad, the man formerly known as Dylan Wilkes.

With the end of high school barreling down on them, Delia and Josie have plenty of tough decisions to make – not the least of which involves the future of Midnite Matinee. Josie’s parents are leaning on her hard to enroll in Knoxville, so she can take that Food Network internship her mom lined up for her. But moving away from Jackson will mean leaving Delilah Darkwood and Rayne Ravenscroft – and Delia herself – behind. And then there’s Lawson, the handsome MMA fighter who’s slowly but surely worming his way into Josie’s heart.

The girls hatch a plan to ‘take Midnite Matinee to the next level,’ involving a road trip to Orlando, a horror con, and an eccentric Hollyweird type name Jack Devine. Spoiler alert: things go sideways, as they tend to do.

So Jeff Zentner based Delia and Josie (or, perhaps more accurately, Delilah and Rayne) on two very real people: Marlena Midnite and Robyn Graves, the hosts of Midnite Mausoleum. He also volunteers at Tennessee Teens Rock Camp and Southern Girls Rock Camp, working with aspiring musicians. These facts are relevant because Zentner does a pretty rad job portraying female friendships (and cheesy late night horror shows), probably based in no small part on his own real life experiences.

I really love Delia and Josie together; their banter is fun and authentic, and Bufie makes a pawsome sidekick. (The twins I could do without, though the commentary on Basset hounds and beagles and what constitutes a valid opinion is entertaining and relevant as heck.) There are a lot of really great one-liners in here; to wit: “The leather cuff is the fedora of the wrist.”

Typically Zentner writes pathos with a little bit of humor sprinkled in; RAYNE & DELILAH’S MIDNITE MATINEE is the inverse. While I think he’s at his strongest in the former (and the heavy scenes are indeed my favorite bits here), the latter is still entertaining too.

Josie and Delia’s looming graduation really took me back to my own senior year in high school (and then college), and not always in a comfortable way. I empathize with both girls, in different ways: I both identified with Delia’s “sad sack” outlook on life (depression knows depression) and felt the push-pull conflict tearing Josie to pieces in my very marrow. (Like I said, PATHOS is Zentner’s JAM.) The bit about Buford in the last few pieces simply destroyed me. (Shadow, I miss you so much, my sweet babygirl.)

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have a season of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 to binge watch. I need some laughs, okay.

I am notoriously picky about books of a lighter nature. But since The Serpent King is one of my all-time favorites, and I really loved Goodbye Days , I was obviously going to give Rayne & Delilah a go. And I am so glad that I did, for it was fabulous. This book is completely laugh-out-loud funny. Nay, it's laugh-at-inappropriate-times funny.

But beyond just being phenomenally funny, it had so, so much heart. Delia and Josie are both incredible characters who I loved from basically the start. I related far more to Delia, but I still really enjoyed Josie. They're both facing a lot of changes as they finish their high school years, and effectively, their childhoods. They are of course also going through major personal changes, as a result of all of the upheaval but also just as a result of growing up.

Their friendship is at the center of the story, and it's so well done. It feels incredibly authentic, and I swear I have had some of these same ups and downs with my own friends (you know, minus the horror movie cable access show, sadly). But it isn't just their relationship that has a focus, there are so many other highlighted relationships! All the side characters are incredibly well fleshed out, and I grew to care about them just as much as Delia and Josie. And, family was a huge focus too.

Add to it a road trip to a fan convention, and you have me drowning in flails. You'll laugh (a lot), cry, and just feel like your heart is fuller after reading Josie and Delia's story.

Bottom Line: Full of hilarious hijinks, heartbreaking, life-defining moments, and a friendship that frankly cannot be beat. To say you want to read this is a severe understatement.

For fans of late night horror films, the cheesier the better, Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee reaches out to embrace you. Two best friends who highlight a different oldie-but-"goodie" horror film each Saturday night on public access television, Josie (Rayne) and Delia (Delilah) bond over these films and the friendship that blossomed because of them. However, now with graduation approaching, family problems growing larger by the minute, and personal relationships becoming something of a quagmire, will their Televison Six show be enough to hold them together or is the future too tenuous?

I wasn't really aware that horror hosting was a thing before Rayne & Delilah. Sure I'd heard of Elvira, but beyond that not so much. So the concept was super interesting, adding to the fact that I love horror movies and I don't get to indulge in them as much as I'd like because I don't have anyone in my immediate real life to share them with. 

I wasn't thrilled with the execution of the story, though.

It may have had something to do with so much of the opening having to do with Josie & Delia filming an episode of their show Midnite Matinee, but even once the action moved  past the filming it still felt kinda flat. The voices of the main characters were very similar, like if they were changed Delia and Josie's voices would be indistinct. There was even a point where, in a Josie chapter, this was highlighted by a p.o.v. signifier being wrong with no notice being given. I don't think it happened more than once in the rest of the book, but it strengthened my problem with Josie & Delia's voices being too alike.

Once they were apart and talking to others, it was easier to see Delia and Josie opening up into their own persons. As a reader it became a better experience and there was more opportunity to enjoy their interactions, conversations, and internal thoughts. 

Some of the other issues that I had, even with these improvements, included the distinct lack of communication between Josie and Delia. Their friendship felt a bit unbalanced because of this, especially when thinking about Josie's dream of being on television (as unrelated to horror hosting) or Delia's attachment to Midnite Matinee and staying in their town.

Delia was complicated, messy, interesting. She had a lot going on, such as searching for the father that abandoned her and her mother ten years prior to the start of the book; her mental health (depression) as well as that of her mother (also depression); the stability and possibility of Midnite Matinee, the only sort-of link she has to her father. There were difficult times, what Delia referred to as dark days, whether for her or her mother. On some level I was able to see why why Delia didn't want Josie to go to Knoxville for college, for the internship. Her sick mother & abandonment issues, her best friend & the Midnite Matinee are vital parts of her identity. Without them, who is Delia? That's the question she struggles with throughout Rayne & Delilah, even as she's asking questions like what's wrong with her or why don't people stay with her if nothing is actually wrong?

Josie was something else. After much of the book, I found myself really wondering: who was she? Reading the book, we know she wants to be on t.v., wants her own show, but other than that and Midnite Matinee, who is she? What does she like? There are some Netflix titles dropped that she watches away from Delia, but her individuality seems almost non-existent until Lawson showed up.

Lawson, who is ostensibly a side character, had more dimensions than she did. He was a MMA fighter, he enjoys reading fantasy novels, he even gets into a bit of horror hosting because of Josie. It felt like there was more thought put into his dream track of being a professional MMA fighter than Josie's television industry person. As much as I liked Lawson, this feels like a failing of Josie, one of the main (titular!) characters. It would have been nice to get a better idea of her personality, heck, even more depth of her t.v. aspirations.

This wasn't a terribly written book, but there was an overwhelmingly feeling of "meh" when I was finished and looking for a word to describe how I felt about Midnite Matinee. It could be enjoyable, but I think it's just under the border of character driven enjoyable and not really near any kind of mark as far as plot driven. Some humor in the form of extreme cringe alleviates the third act, but it's not enough to raise my estimation of the overall work.

“Sometimes small and unspectacular things can be a universe.”

A new Jeff Zentner book?! YESSSS! I am so stoked that I was approved for Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee. Jeff always writes books that make me ugly cry and end up loving to pieces. Rayne & Delilah was no exception! I felt all the feels and let me tell you, there are so many! This book was so fun to read….and so easy to cry over.

I loved Josie and Delia’s friendship so much. They were funny and connected so well together. They had a strong bond and connection and it was perfection. They had me laughing almost non-stop and then there were the moments where they had me crying almost non-stop! Throw in new friend Lawson and it was a riot! There were a lot of family aspects to the story that were really sad, but I loved Delia and her mom’s relationship so much. I loved the horror movie aspect of it and all the movie references. I even caught a some Serpent King references in the story, which was fun! I’m sure there were Goodbye Days references that I missed, but it was fun that there were some little connections to Zentner’s other books. :P

Overall, I loved Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Mantinee so so much! It was everything I hoped it would be. I laughed, I cried, and had so much fun reading it. The characters were great, the story was great, so much friendship and love in one story. It made me so sad and so happy at the same time. I highly recommend reading it. Now I must go find some low quality old horror films to watch. :P

“Maybe life isn’t about avoiding pain at all costs. Maybe it’s about having one or two people who have signed up for the messy job of being your salvation, who make your life bigger.”

When I thought I couldn't love Jeff Zentner's book any more than I do, he goes and puts this amazing story out in the world. Tell me, tell me, how do you do it, sir?

Josie and Delia are our two point-of-view characters. It took me a little to catch on to their individual voices and thought patterns, but once I did, I had no trouble distinguishing the two. They are both as different as two people can be except they have one thing in common - they put on a weekly Saturday public access television program that's quirky, cheesy, nerdy, and a wonderful mess. Their alter egos are Rayne Ravenscroft (Josie) and Delilah Darkwood (Delia). The public access show is the star of this story as things are revealed that directly connects the dots to the character arcs.

I also thought that both personalities acted as a foil for one another, as Delia is going through a more significant and dramatic time in her life, trying to fill a void left by the dad that abandoned her. On the other hand, Josie is going through a more mellow, but no less important, time as she's trying to decide what she wants to do post high school. But both perspectives absolutely are true to the raw angst we experience when we're 17-18 years old. It's been a while since I've related to a contemporary YA containing the exact same emotions and thoughts that floated my young mind my senior year of high school.

This book does some amazing things. It presents an honest female friendship, it gives us a swoon-worthy romance, and we are blessed with a set of secondary characters that not easily forgettable. (One of my favorites was Arliss.) The story eventually leads to this ridiculous scene that involves the Russian mafia and such an outlandish scenario that I couldn't help but love it all.

This book made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions (which is difficult to do), it also made me cry, and ultimately, it made me feel so many emotions that amped up my nostalgia. I sped through this one pretty fast but stopped a couple of times to mark quotes I loved.

I hope you all have a chance to pick this one up because I promise, you will not be disappointed. It has something for every reader.

As always, happy reading!

This book didn't grab me or pull me in at all. I didn't like the MC's at all and this felt very much like the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I honestly couldn't even make myself trudge through the whole thing. I was very disturbed by his last book in which the MC and his friend mimed suicide and joked about it numerous times. I wanted to give him a chance again and I'm sad to say I won't be purchasing or reviewing any more of his books.

5 Stars - I recommend if you enjoy quirky YA, that is packed full of every adult feel.

Josie and Delia are two high school seniors who run a late-night cable access show featuring zany old horror movies. Delia has always loved horror movies, as she grew up watching them with her dad before he left her and her mom. Josie has always wanted to be on main-stream television. The two find that this show brings the two of them and their interests together. Josie's parents are pressuring her to move to Knoxville next year and take an internship with Food Network, Delia is trying everything in her power to get Josie to stay. When they find out that famous TV horror host will be at ShiverCon in Orlando, FL, and Delia finds out that her dad is living near there... they take the chance to make their dreams come true and confront the past. This is a quirky and incredibly emotional coming of age story.

I requested this one because it sounded so quirky and fun. I loved the premise: two teenage girls who have a late-night cable access show about really bad, old, horror movies. So much fun. I adored all of the quirky details related to their show and their characters, all of their funny teenage girl conversations, and the other characters in the book. You can tell based on the timing that the book will end up being fairly emotional and deep, however, I didn't expect how much it would effect me. This book deals with loneliness, divorce, coming of age, first loves, moving away, best friends, not knowing what you want to do with your life, and disappointment. Mid-way through the book there was kind of a strange patch when the girls go to Orlando, I thought that it might be going downhill, however, the ending of the book hit me so hard that it all felt perfect. Rarely am I emotionally effected by a book that is not outright tragic, than I was with this book. I won't spoil it for you, but I think if you like heartfelt YA, that isn't all about the fluff, you will enjoy this one. I'm giving this one five stars (my first of the year) because it was incredibly well written, quirky, real, and mostly because of how it made me feel.

Nothing lasts forever. This is the theme of Jeff Zentner’s new novel, Rayne & Deliah’s Midnite Matinee, a coming of age story about two best friends who host an old-school horror film show on public access television.

It’s hard to believe that a pair of high school seniors could pull it off, but Josie and Delia host a weekend creature feature TV show that is broadcast in several states. While the viewership leaves something to be desired and the girls doubt that anyone would recognize them in public, “Midnite Matinee” gives them an outlet to work toward their future goals and come to terms with their past and future.

Delia, AKA Delilah Darkwood, is the one who is really passionate about low-rent horror flicks. She and her dad used to watch VHS tapes of the films before he abandoned their family when Delia was just a young child. Josie, AKA Rayne Ravenscroft, doesn’t care about scary movies the way that Delia does. She is hoping to make a name for herself in television someday, and Midnite Matinee is helping her get closer to her dream.

However, as senior year comes to a close and the girls start contemplating their futures, they find they are being pulled in different directions. Delia can’t stop thinking about her father and how she never got closure after he walked out on their family all those years ago. With every broadcast of Midnite Matinee, she hopes that her dad is out there, somewhere, watching and that he is proud. Josie’s parents are pushing her to accept an internship at Food Network, which would put her in college far away from Delia and the guy who has recently caught her eye, Lawson. Torn between the world she loves and the world she dreams, Josie feels that with whatever decision she makes, she will be letting someone down. In this last fateful summer before their adult lives begin, Delia and Josie hang on desperately to their pasts while making way for their futures.

Rayne & Deliah’s Midnite Matinee is heartfelt, introspective, and thought-provoking. Jeff Zentner captures perfectly how it feels to be on the cusp of something great, but afraid to leave everything you have ever loved behind. This story is even amusing, with the production of Midnite Matinee bringing on lots of laughs. Zentner takes two issues that many young people face - coming to terms with family struggles and making major life decisions - and presents them in a way that is relatable and engaging.

While the majority of this novel is very good and readable, the story takes an odd turn when Delia and Josie attend ShiverCon, a horror convention. Here the story becomes outlandish, the tone not gelling well with the rest of the book. Had it not been so over the top, my overall impression of the book would have been much higher.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Books for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

You know those authors whose books you own but you have never gotten around to reading but you still love this author because you’ve heard so many great things about them? Well that was Jeff Zentner for me. It didn’t hit me that this was the same author of The Serpent King (which has been on my TBR for years) until I was reading the premise for this book and I was sooo giddily shocked and happy. This feeling lasted for most of this book because the story of Josie and Delia? Goodness it was so heartwarming, I completely loved the friendship between these two girls. I couldn’t help but empathize with both of them and more so at times with Delia whose feelings of loneliness definitely brought tears to my eyes more than once.

This book was at times funny and happy but it was also sad in the sense that it dealt with real life emotions and what it feels like to graduate high school and find everything changing around you, not knowing exactly what’s going on nor knowing what to do next. I absolutely recommend this book and I couldn’t have been left with more of a feeling of completeness as the ending of this book left me with.

“Most of all, I think it’s people who love to be reminded that sometimes you do your best and you come up short, but there’s still a place in the world for people like that.”

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Random House. I grew up watching horror movies with my dad, so the premise of this book caught me right away. He watches Svengoolie faithfully every Saturday, and I try to catch it with him whenever I can. If I hadn’t been a book blogger, I might have reviewed horror movies (and did all through high school, with the standard irreverence of my sixteen-year-old self). Horror hosting is such a niche interest that I was delighted to find a novel about it. Trigger warnings: depression, anxiety, mental illness, harassment, threats, mild violence, blood, off-page drug use.

Best friends Josie and Delia host a public access show called Rayne & Delilah’s Midnight Matinee, where they show cheesy horror films and provide goofy commentary in the style of Elvira and Svengoolie. But as high school draws to a close, Josie’s parents are pressuring her to take an out-of-state internship, which will mean the end of the show. Delia can’t imagine life without Josie or the show. Her dad walked out when she was a kid, leaving behind his collection of VHS horror films, and she secretly hopes he’ll someday see her on TV. When the girls are invited to a horror convention in Florida near her dad’s new home, they have an opportunity to take the show to the next level–and Delia just may find the courage to confront him.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed and cried so much in the same book. I’m new to Zentner’s fiction, but he has a way of running emotions right across the spectrum and back again. Comedy usually wears on me quickly, and there are times it’s over the top here. The characters’ constant stream of witty banter stretches the realism at times, there are some awkward descriptions, and some of the humor is plain juvenile. However, there are also times when it’s genuinely funny, particularly with the bits and the jokes that resurface throughout the novel. The chapters move back and forth between Delia and Josie, whose humor and quick talking has a Lorelai Gilmore feel to it. Their inner monologue is similar enough that it’s sometimes difficult to remember whose perspective we’re in, but the writing is overall good and often moving.

The emotional impact is much more on-point than the humor, and after reading reviews of some of Zentner’s other novels, I’m not surprised. In part, Josie and Delia’s impending post-high school separation is a story we’ve heard a lot of times, but I was still invested in it. It’s a difficult time of life, and it resonates especially with Delia, who feels as though she’s always being left behind. I wasn’t expecting a romance (but then, neither was Josie), but I found myself enjoying her relationship with Lawson almost as much as I enjoyed her friendship with Delia. It’s surprisingly healthy for a YA romance (and interracial–yay representation!), since he never tries to make choices for her or push her in any direction–even when she initially decides she just wants to be friends. That is how you back off gracefully, my dudes. His interest in MMA fighting also brings a Lloyd Dobler-type dimension to the book (so, you know, swoon).

I thought my favorite part of the book would be the horror films, but other than a few name-dropped titles (most too obscure for even me to have seen), there isn’t a lot of horror trivia to be found. It’s much more about the connection horror films have forged between Delia and her dad, even though he’s gone. I like the way the novel approaches the concept of forgiveness and whether or not it’s always a good thing. My favorite part turned out to be the relationship Delia has with her mother. They both struggle with depression, and she’s loving and supportive when she’s on her meds; when she’s not, it forces Delia to take on more responsibility. Excellent representation of both mental illness and parents who are actually present in their children’s lives. Rayne & Delilah’s Midnight Matinee has a little something for everyone, and it’s one of my favorite YA contemporaries in recent memory.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I loved the idea, I loved the premise and I loved the idea of two teens hosting their own horror show on local access. However, this book never really took off for me. I felt the writing was predictable, the storyline was cliche and it didn't really stand out to me. I work with teens and will definitely recommend it to them, because I think they could relate better than I. But it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Rayne & Deliah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zenter is a a young adult book about friendship. Best friends, first loves, and planning future dreams. Be prepared to be swept up in this story and these characters. Very unique young adult story.

I reviewed an arc from Netgalley and Random House Children's Publishing. Thank you.

I love love love Jeff Zenter. I was lucky enough to get the ARC for goodbye days when it was first going around. That was my first book by Zenter and I was hooked. If you are a fan you know this book is a little different then his usual.

The humor in this book was great. It had great gut punching funny moments and yet still had that classic pull at your heart strings vibe he does so well.

Our two leads Delia and Josie aren’t without flaw though. I felt like Josie was a little vapid but honestly what teenager isn’t? Josie had no life direction and it was killing me! She didn’t know who or what she wanted to be and I just wanted more. That being said that is an extremely real look at what some teens are feeling at the end of there high school career.

Lawson and Arliss are UNSUNG heroes of this story. I love them, they are both in fact the best, and I will fight you if you don’t agree.

The end DID IT FOR ME! I was leaning toward a lower rating for this because I thought Josie was never gonna come full circle but boy did she ever. The end of this book was great. Josie, her mom, BLESS WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END!

I think you all should go pick up this book it is a quick fast and fun read. Real rating 3.75 rounding up to 4 for goodreads and netgalley.

Favorite Quote

“This dream, though—the one about finding all the hidden rooms—I think it does mean something. I think it means there’s something great inside me, something extraordinary and mysterious and undiscovered. That’s a thing I tell myself. It’s a thing I believe.”

This book had many great qualities like the friendship between Josie and Delia, snarky Arliss, first love Lawson and the girls figuring out where they belong. Also their cute dog companion Buford! The only thing that I didn’t enjoy was the excessive random dialogue that didn’t further the plot at all. Just the random conversations they would have with one another. I understand a few of the random conversations, like when Josie is testing Lawson on whether he can keep up with her random thoughts, but there were others that totally could’ve been cut.